The Empathy Gap: Building Bridges to the Good Life and the Good Society: Library Edition [Audiobook] [CD]

I was confused at the existence of two books by this author on the same topic published very close together. After considerable effort, I found that Why Empathy Matters is the paperback edition of The Empathy Gap, which doesn't seem to be explicitly stated on either Amazon page. The author's online vita explains this.

I just mention this so that readers don't buy the book twice by mistake or waste time (like me) wondering which one was more appropriate for them to read.

(I rated it five stars because Amazon wouldn't allow me to add this note without providing a rating.)

The first thing I noticed about this book is that - to my pleasant surprise -- it is not at all a self-help book. Instead, it's a book that describes -- in entertaining and highly readable prose -- how we can effect significant improvements in well being by using social policy to make an end run around our most common human foibles.

Here I will briefly summarize each of the six chapters to give a sense of how the book unfolds.

Chapter 1 (Bridging the Empathy Gap) - introduces a theme that runs throughout the book - that empathy can be good, but can also be fickle, and we need social policies to harness its power for the good. I found myself wanting more of a sense cohesiveness to the examples. But they made more sense as I got deeper into the book.

Chapter 2 (The Trappings of Freedom) "Free will is a bit like a sheep. There really is an animal there, but it's amazingly skinny when you've shaved all the wool off." (That's my favorite quote from the book!). The argument here - familiar in social psychology but I'm betting not so in philosophy - is that much of our behavior is shaped by external forces, much more so than we ever recognize - an important premise for the proposals introduced later.

Chapter 3 (Can We Rebuild This Mind?) - here Trout urges that we should develop behavioral policies that impose external constraints to ensure that we do not fall prey to destructive biases that impede good decision making. This chapter provides a really nice summary of different cognitive biases that we are prone to - these are probably familiar to many readers already, but not everyone.

Chapter 4 (Outside the Mind) - what do hospital computer screensavers depicting colorfully germy hands, a urinal with a drawing of a life-sized fly inside, and chevron markings on roads have in common? They are each a man-made feature of the local environment that effectively corrects detrimental tendencies in behavior. This is the most entertaining chapter in the book - the examples are at times hilarious, and all fascinating.

Chapter 5 (Stat Versus Gut) anticipates the concern that behavior-shaping policies will all be expensive and complicated. Trout argues that many welfare-enhancing policies are not only simple but also money saving. This chapter is a great lesson for non-policy-wonks like me who tire of jargon-laden cost-benefit analyses. At the same time, I would have liked to see an acknowledgement that not all solutions will be simple and cheap.

Chapter 6 (The New Republic) is the final chapter, and it presses for the adoption of behavioral science based policy, to increase overall happiness and well-being. These include small scale changes that can produce big changes in the lives of individual people, like the elimination of grocery-free deserts in inner cities, and walk-to-work programs that encourage people to avoid long commutes. Trout calls for "benign social experimentation" - science backed policies that can potentially increase well-being. Some of these are seemingly small tweaks that we might not even notice but could reap huge benefits - things like using linguistics-based evidence to regulate drug names to avoid prescription related errors. But Trout doesn't shy away from more controversial topics, like handgun control, suicide prevention, and helmet laws - I was pleased to see an added layer of complexity here. This is clearly the most ambitious chapter in the book, as well as the most original and the most thought provoking as well.

Overall, the book has provoked me to look at problems that plague us individually and socially in a new light - they no longer seem as daunting and insolvable. Of course, this book is not a panacea, it's just a starting point. But its timing couldn't be better - it unabashedly embraces the notion that the time for real social and political Change has come - what distinguishes this book is that it provides a roadmap for how we can go about it. Highly recommended - there's something for everyone here.

this is an excellent and tremendously important book all around.

briefly, it's about our capacity to empathize with others who are suffering or are worse off in general, and why it is that relying on these feelings (and trusting in the charity they supposedly effect) makes for bad policy -- not only are our emotions often short-lived, but we also possess an impressive lineup of cognitive shortcomings that allow us to ignore or redirect our empathy, or occasionally to ignore our humane feelings and "blame the victim."

the best policy, he argues, would be transform the empathy we feel for our neighbors and for others around the world into concrete, consistent government programs that can create a safety net for others in order to reduce poverty and alleviate suffering around the world. (not that the solutions are always easy to come by, but we need policies in place that will direct our better intentions into reliable, effective programs.)

is it acceptable that we have one of the highest poverty rates, especially for children, among the wealthier nations of the world? what about our infant mortality rate?

he then sets about demonstrating ways in which both "outside strategies" have proven effective, whether in the lab or in the real world -- looking at foreign government and the private sector -- and discusses ways in which the "libertarian" (used generally) perspective regarding new government intrusions are misguided, as we can already find parallels today. as a society, we have to realize our priorities and transform the empathy we feel for others who are struggling or who have limited opportunities and create "nets" and strategies -- realistically based on our actual decision-making processes, as demonstrated by cognitive and psychological research -- that will ensure that no one slips through the cracks and we can provide consistent support for our neighbors and fellow human beings.

a brief excerpt here gives an idea of what he envisions for our society: "The idea of a new demos, and a modern agora, may seem idealistic. But there is nothing pie in the sky about pools of citizens deliberating with the advice of scientists; such groups already exist. There is nothing exotic about a government Committee on Science and Technology; the House of Representatives already uses one to make law. And there is nothing utopian about a government that is aggressively humane, constantly searching for ways to make our lives more satisfying and comfortable. Whatever the fate of these positive proposals, they are not grounded in the foolish optimism that our society will improve whenever we recognize the need. Well-being programs designed for the common good must give the greatest number of people a fighting chance to be happy. A humane government steps in with social plans when our individual judgment fails us. A new twenty-first century Enlightenment of the head and heart, of rationality and empathy, can help us build and implement those social plans so that we don't fail others."

oh, let it be, let it be!